What Are Antioxidants Meant For In Our Bodies

Did you know that fewer than 50% of adults in North America eat the recommended servings of vegetable and fruit each day, who often leave a nutritional gap.

Although this group of foods is usually rich in many nutrients including for example antioxidants.
Some of the important nutrients include vitamins, proteins and carbohydrates. However, there are other nutrients that most people assume and do not know about. For example, many people would not know what to say if they were asked, what are antioxidants?

Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions. This is done by them being oxidized themselves, so antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols or ascorbic acid for example.

It is antioxidants which stop such destructive physiological processes. They do this through ending the chain reaction through eliminating the free radicals and stopping any oxidation from occurring. This is possible since they get oxidized in place of other molecules. Thiols and scorbutic acid are a good example.

There are many foods which are rich in this nutrient. Let’s review a few of these next. Some of them include nuts, beans, grains and seeds. Actually, most plants have this nutrient in abundance. Meat, eggs and dairy products also contain a low concentration because animals rely on plants for their nutrition. Hence their products have similar nutrients. Some other rich sources are mushrooms, almonds, Alaskan king crab and pineapples.